I went, I saw, I considered. FYI, there's spoilers galore to follow.
First off, the theater was a madhouse. Packed to the brim. And the snack line was a nightmare I had to endure twice since I'm incapable of carrying two hotdogs, the big sized popcorn (which sadly tasted a bit burnt), two cokes and a box of BunchaCrunch (which was a bit old too, el yucko). Still, let me just say the film held enough of both my wife's & my own interest that neither of us took a pit stop until the credits were rolling (and if you're wondering, yes we'd stayed long enough to see LAM Starscream taking flight into the cosmos).
Now let me next say that when creating a film based on a preexisting media, the goal is to both make a film all can enjoy and remain true enough to the fiction you're adapting from. The designs present in the film indicate the latter was not done at all, about as on the mark as Chaney's quail hunting rifle. But before more on that note, I have to admit honestly that I liked (not loved) this movie a great deal. Not as much as I'd been hoping and certainly not to a degree I'd been wanting for years now (with a thought of big budget Transformers movie still nothing but an imagination), but to say I didn't like it or I hated it would be a flat out lie.
LaBeouf surprised the heck out of me. His character of "Sam Witwicky" was great and I enjoyed just about every second he was on the screen. Never saw that coming. The majority of actors hit their mark even through most of the cliche lines, the action was truly intense at moments, and I laughed at just about every single joke along with the rest of the packed-in audience. It was fun, and I mean that in every positive way possible. For example, when Cullen spoke through a faceplate-less Transformer and said, "My name is Optimus Prime," I gave out a loud & honest, "WOO!" which started a couple of seconds worth of hoots & hollers...which led to a few, "shut up"s. ^_^ Oops, but oops without regret. One thing; Hated BB's peeing thing. Probably the one joke I didn't even crack a smile at, mostly due to me just not finding it that funny. It got a few laughs from the crowd though.
The wifey loved it, and I mean she loved it. Chalk this one up to a favorite of hers I'd go so far to say. And keep in mind she's by no means some kind of Transformers fan, until now that is. In our four years of marriage she's never been so hungry to know info & trivia about TFs, and I'm really happy I had the IDW prequel stuff to help explain this new continuity. She dug all the Sam/Mikaela interactions, every last joke. I didn't catch everything, my spanish sucks, but all that "Jorge" (I think that was his name) said she got a kick out of, every word of it. I suppose the "boy & his car" angle worked well enough being as she thought is was both cool & sweet. Oh, and we both loved the parents. The scene where Sam & his mom and dad were rambling back & forth hilariously then Mikaela stood up? The parents reaction was one of my favorite funny moments of the film.
That said, the action oriented shaky camera method, at times, works great to put the feel of the explosive action into your senses, and I mean really nail it in there, but in the case of Michael Bay's Transformers there was far, far, far, far, far tooo much of it in many areas and I'd go so far as to say the ones that really counted. Couple that with the ludicrous amount of too-close-up shots when the Bots & Cons were battling and it's just a big cluster**** of motion. It's disappointing in the end as I really wanted to see just what these new Transformers could do, and after watching the film wide-eyed to make sure I caught every second I still feel like I wasn't privy to everything that happened.
The Decepticons were nothing more than cannon fodder, as suspected well over a year before Bay even came on to the project. And that's both a blessing and too bad at the same time. I'm rather fond of what I consider to be disappointing Cons (with the exception of Blackout & possibly Barricade) done away with so easily & thoroughly. But at the same time Decepticons aren't suppose to be just your throwaway bad guys, they've always been character driven what with their banter at one another & with the Autobots as they fought. I'd been hoping deep down, what with Orci giving false hopes at TFL off & on, there would have been a decent gathering scene of Cons providing at least some interaction. The brief words between LAM Megatron & LAM Starscream only left one wanting.
Hated Frenzy all the way through. I just don't get the minute amount of appeal of his spindly metal arse. Barricade though, that Decepticon grew on me quick. The quick interaction with Sam was bad to the bone. I'm nuts about the new Mustangs that have been coming out for the last few years, so a cop car Decepticon with a kickass paintjob, a slogan of "To punish & enslave", that turns into one and has a more than intense personality displayable within just a few seconds of dialogue is a slice of nice in my book. I don't know that I so much like his robotic design, but I certainly can see me getting into him in the end... ...that didn't sound right.
I want to love Starscream, I really do, but I just cannot get into his robotic mode. I can only hope some alterations will occur on him before he makes his way back to Earth in a sequel. Given Transformers are so toy driven & I don't see Hasbro selling the same Screamers toy twice in a row for the movie venture, there's hopefully that chance. His flight scene with the battling F-22s was impressive if not short-lived.
I love Blackout, other than the head design (which translated horribly onto the figure, an item already purchased btw). One thing though, near the end of the film, and I may just not have caught something right even though my eyes never left the screen; When Blackout had his blades weapon going in his hand, were his rotor blades still on his back?
The rest of the Cons were throwaway characters and sadly presented as such. Show up & die, all the way. Something on the tank though; I know the intent & toy release say Brawl (which is the perfect name for a tank Decepticon) and the film made the mistake of not changing that fictionally claimed placeholder name of Devastator, but it if were to come up, which would be the definitive name carried on? Brawl or Devastator? Which is law, the ticket seller or the toy purchase?
I'd have thought I'd have hated Megatron all around, and it's not the way it should be. So I'm happy that's not the way it is, entirely anyhoo. The only time you should hate a villain in a media is when he or she is just so damned villainous it gets to you a little bit perhaps, just a little in a "what if this guy really existed" sense of mind. That's not the case here. It's not that I love or really like this new Megatron, but it's more he's neither all that bad as expected. His texturing in the film was very well done and the inner workings looked nice enough that for something I still consider a very ugly design it was done quite well and looked far better than in any art or rendering seen prior. Still a bit bland on the aesthetics, too spiky as well, but not as bad as I thought. And yet, in the end, they might as well have gotten Welker to voice the character. Would have been a draw for me. You can neither tell it's Weaving nor would you expect the new Welker's Megatron to sound exactly like the old (much the case with Cullen/Prime) though in honesty it would still work for this new incarnation if you ask me.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment on the Decepticon tyrant comes from his demise in the film. With the bit of scene where Jazz pumps a couple of shots into Megatron with his advanced Cybertronian weaponry with no effect right before he's yanked in half with ease, the bit later where a few Earthen shots manage to somehow put this staggering affect & worried look on the supposed badass of badasses' mug is ridiculous. Don't quite get how pushing the Allspark Cube into a (painfully/ludicrously/stupidly overly exposed-in-bot-mode) Spark kills both mystical device of life and Transformer, but hey, Optimus seemed convinced & sadly he was right. Farewell Megatron, your apparently a hack of a tyrant that just got lucky until a teenager from Earth nailed you. Ugh. Seriously, I get that it was suppose to be a triumph for Sam and a "Go us!" moment for mankind in this film's Earth but when Sam almost casually thrust the Cube into Meg's chest, it proved to not only kill Megatron but to disappoint severely. King of Cons as throwaway as his minions.
As for the Autobots, eh, I'm 50/50 on them (and we're not talking designs for the mostpart).
It seemed the only time Prime talked was to say something heavily expositional or simply "the Cube", "the glasses", "the Cube", "the glasses", "the Cube", "the glasses". But, no lies here, I loved listening to every second of it. Still don't like the flames and I would have preferred less silver showing on Optimus' robotic form, but at least the film made that paintjob out to be coincidental. That works better for me, the reason provided in the film that is, over the actual reasoning of Bay just wanting the paintjob.
But here's the big shocker. As odd as it is to say so, I really liked Prime sans faceplate. And I mean I really, really liked it. Go figure. While items like the original toon Prime, the Marvel DW and IDW Prime, and Masterpiece Prime will forever be preferred with an iconic faceplate, I'm almost preferring this new incarnation without it. Quite bluntly, if the fairly impressive Optimus figure available in stores right now had a removable faceplate with a likeness matching what I saw in theaters, I would more than likely break my own collecting rule on "no TFs with the same name twice" and nab him..
...
..that figure in stores doesn't have a removable faceplate, does he?
BB, on the other hand, I'd have much preferred to keep that "battlemask" as his actual face the entire time. I'd been hoping since seeing a preview image of the battlemask down that the movie would have shown Sam naming him Bumblebee rather than that just being his name as said by Optimus, but that just didn't happen. Love the look of that new Camaro, even if I don't think it right for Bumblebee. And for the record I don't think BB should have been a VW Bug either.
Something I noticed in the way of inconsistencies, and maybe it was just me but I noticed right off the bat and caught it each time. Bumblebee's robot mode seemed to still be that of the old camaro well after the point in which he takes on the new Camaro form. I can't help but think the alteration scene was pushed up in the movie? And before we digress from LAM Bumblebee, what the heck was with him just up & speaking suddenly at the end??? Buh?!
Didn't care for Ironhide, who's southern-styled crimson incarnation remains a long time favorite of this Texan. The personality was undesirable to me & the voice far from impressive as a chosen update. I mean, couldn't put at least a little drawl on there? Jazz can go ghetto with words, but Ironhide can't have a little country? Heck, with how independent Cullen's new Prime voice is from the original, more John Wayne-like one, couldn't let him bust out with some Ironhide, switch it up a little? The man's got that kind of talent after all.
Ratchet almost started to grow on me a bit. Not the red & white doc I'd have cared for, but the emergency vehicle paint job (accurate enough to real life) was a decent take. Were the toy/figure representation of the character no so disappointing, I'd likely add him or his red & white repaint to my personal & modest collection as Ratchet. Still, I have to question his abilities as a doctor. In the prequel comics a simple crushing hand relieves BB of the ability to speak, and Ratchet can't fix it. "Still working on it," or some such he says. Jazz gets snapped in two and Ratchet can't save him. Like I said, almost started to grow on me a bit.
There were a few other things that didn't sit right, like all the coincidences, too many in fact. Especially with Bumblebee's reformatting. There just happened to be a concept car of the same brand name, same coloring, same stripes passing through the tunnel at the exact moment homegirl says something? Cheezy. Another thing was this Cube. I get that it's the new Vector Sigma, the new Matrix, in that it's the plot device being sought. But still; Anything created by this Allspark is just suddenly a monster robot that attacks everything? What's up with that? A couple of other things were Fox's delivery of "I'll drive, you shoot," and the pathetically cliche, "no matter what happens.." lines which were weak, way weak. And Sector 7 was a joke, Agent Simmons being a pathetic man in black, sorry. The little back & forth with Mr. Sector Seven & Sam just didn't feel like it worked onscreen, and I just feel like Turturro's heavily responsible. Or maybe it was both of them, though I can't recall thinking ill of Sam's speech there. If Optimus had broken down the deal to me, I know I'd be able to recite it later. ^_^ The two computer hackers/programmers, despite one being quite hilarious as usual, were throwaway characters set into throwaway roles that offered little to nothing to the film. Could have done without it, especially the "there's only one" line. There's never only one person in the world that can do anything, and if there was I doubt you'd find them in an American suburb.
Now the biggie. The designs. I gotta admit, those fairly ugly, undesirable, at times unsightly designs were spectacularly rendered & animated. But no matter how well lit & textured they were, they remain too busy in most TF's cases. The two biggest comments I keep hearing from folks, mostly outside of the fandom please keep in mind, is how fun & funny the movie was and how great the effects were. Did you catch that? The effects, as in level of visual quality, were great. Not so much on the design mentions.
When it comes to the Transformers aesthetics for the film, which are the biggest of the aspects of interests for both the film itself and the Transformers individually (because lets face it, explosions are explosions and characterization wasn't the biggest strong suit for everybody in the limelight of the flick) naturally, as expected, despite being open to being wrong, I was disappointed. There was absolutely no reason to redesign the characters this heavily.
You can say what you will about the hows & whys but the fact is (especially given the shaky camera throughout) the aesthetics used weren't necessary in the end. Such realistic texturing and lighting could easily have been applied to more recognizable designs and I doubt with every bit of ability I have that no one would have complained about it. Yet, on par, "that's not the way they decided to go".
But I guess many wouldn't pay attention to all that. Since I don't like the movie designs I must simply want a cg carbon copy of the original cartoon designs. Still. *Sigh* Some people.
So, in the end, do all the better points of this film make me feel any better about how it came to pass? Certainly not. Do I feel this indeed is the Transformers film awaited for over two decades, or even better, a TF movie that managed surpassed my long developed expectations? Not at all. Am I suddenly onboard the Bay-train from here on out? Probably never going to happen. But has Michael Bay managed to manufacture a brand spanking new Transformers universe that establishes itself? Many out there may not like the fact, but the answer is a resounding yes.
Michael Bay's Transformers is not the greatest movie of all time by far, but it's certainly one of the better ones I've seen in a while. If it was just a little less based on coincidence & convenience, it could have won me over in the end I suspect. After the disappointment of Venom in the recent Spiderman flick, Transformers didn't bring me down like I thought it would. With the cheez, the cliches, the action, the Bots versus Cons, the plot device sought, the robotic aliens speaking English, mass-shifting present after all, and many other items that were deemed detrimental & undesirable in an effort to discredit more traditional & certainly non-detrimental bits not to find their place in the film, this is more like the original Transformers material than I think the production team intended, and in all the ways I probably wouldn't have preferred. But for what it is, it works, and many fans out there should have no trouble getting into this new TF universe.
So, for being an introductory story for a brand new, entirely separated continuity/universe of Transformers, it's a good one and I'm honestly interested. Even if the guy that made it has a severe lack of respect for prior incarnations & lack of care for the fans those incarnations produced. Or maybe it's a lack of care with his words in interviews in the end. Bay's Transformers are certainly not what I wanted, not what I would've cared for, and not even something outside of what I would prefer that remains in something more akin to what the film's nostalgia factor played off of. But what it is is fun, exciting at times, interesting other times, and something within the franchise of my interest that I can now share with my wife, a woman that's always respected my hobby but never been into it until now. When the DVD hits, as the boy's too young for theater sitting (we've tried), my little boy will no doubt be all that more into what glimpses he's caught in various commercials. It's, surprising as it is for me to feel this way right now, not just another Bay movie, it's a Bay movie. Sans the "just".
This flick is not The Transformers as we've known them. No matter the preference, it is what it is and it stands among the other continuities dating from '84 to now on its own merits as such. This is a new reality of Earth, one that until the just passed release date was a modern society untouched by Transformers. The ones that arrived weren't incarnations of the comics or the cartoons or even the toys with their tech specs. This is the adaptation of ideas and elements that are based in various core elements of the 80's cartoon and comic Transformers as well as the Transformers we've applied the label of "G1" to in the past as they were/are. The amount of "based on" will likely forever remain controversial among the fans, but Bayformers have undoubtedly made their mark.
To read & rate the full Rant, Review and a wishful Revamp, please visit the following link;
http://www.transformersfanfic.com/index ... on_id=4667 Take care yall.
where was barricade in the last fight?
He best be back somehow in the sequel, Bay. I'll even take something ludicrous.
I did'nt believe any of the BS Bay/Orci/Murphy said. I was glad they put Cullen in the film but figured that the cast of G1 and Cullen were the only 'twinkies' we'd get. So none of things I guess that are pissing you guys off, are pissing me off. 
They sure did when I saw XMEN, HULK, SUPERMAN RETURNS, BATMAN 3,4,5 ELEKTRA DAREDEVIL all those films aggravated me to no end? Other incarnations at least tried to give the 'true fan' their kudos in many ways; for what Batman, Batman Forever, Christopher Reeves "Superman", Batman Begins, V 4 Vendetta and even Spiderman lacked in Action/Special Effects/Explosions it more than made up for it character development;story-telling, or by being "true to their comic roots' or toon serials".
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